Daily Scripture: 1 Kings 19:11 He said, “Go outside, and stand on the mountain before Adonai”; and right then and there, Adonai went past. A mighty blast of wind tore the mountains apart and broke the rocks in pieces before Adonai, but Adonai was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake, but Adonai was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, fire broke out; but Adonai was not in the fire. And after the fire came a quiet, subdued voice. 13 When Eliyahu heard it, he covered his face with his cloak, stepped out and stood at the entrance to the cave. Then a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Eliyahu?” 14 He answered, “I have been very zealous for Adonai the God of armies; because the people of Isra’el have abandoned your covenant, broken down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. Now I’m the only one left, and they’re after me to kill me too.”
15 Adonai said to him, “Go back by way of the Dammesek Desert. When you get there, anoint Haza’el to be king over Aram. 16 Also anoint Yehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Isra’el, and anoint Elisha the son of Shafat of Avel-M’cholah to be prophet after you. 17 Yehu will kill whoever escapes the sword of Haza’el, and Elisha will kill whoever escapes the sword of Yehu. 18 Still, I will spare seven thousand in Isra’el, every knee that hasn’t bent down before Ba‘al and every mouth that has not kissed him. )Complete Jewish Bible)
Reflection Questions: Elijah went far south to “Horeb, God’s mountain” (1 Kings 19:8), another name for Mt. Sinai. Verses 11-13 did not say God neverspoke through fire or earthquake (cf. 1 Kings 18:38-39, Exodus 19:16-18). They contrasted God with the pagan gods. “In the ancient Near East…the warrior god was believed to fight on behalf of his people using thunder bolts (lightning, fire), the stormwind and the trembling earth to terrify the enemy…. Once all the fire and storm and earthquake are past, [God’s] plan can be articulated. The ‘gentle whisper’… described the resonating silence after all the clamor of destruction. It is with silence hanging in the air that Yahweh’s voice of direction may be heard.”*
- Elijah said on Mount Carmel that he alone still spoke for God (cf. 1 Kings 18:22). Here he repeated it, almost as a charge against God. “Elijah’s despondency blinded him. The correct answer to God’s question, ‘What are you doing here?’ would have been, ‘I was afraid of Jezebel and ran to hide in this cave.’ Instead, like a martyr, he felt compelled to piously remind God about his zeal, his commitment, and his lonely suffering.”** When are you most likely to overstate your problems, and maybe blame God for what’s wrong? What helps you to maintain perspective?
- Elijah didn’t just wander aimlessly in the wilderness. He went to Mount Horeb, also called Mount Sinai—the very place where God had made a covenant with the people of Israel in the days of Moses (cf. Deuteronomy 5:2). What are some of the sacred places, the fixed points in your life’s journey with God? Do you ever consider returning to them in times of difficulty or pain?
* Comments on 1 Kings 19:11-17 in John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
** Russell Dilday, The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 9: 1, 2 Kings. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1987, p. 205.
Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at Leawood's modern worship services, as well as at the West and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
A few years back, my team at work moved under a new director, and he ended up being the worst boss I ever had. He never took the time to understand the problems my team was having and he never once helped us solve any problems—in fact, he blamed me for not solving the problems, despite me telling him exactly what I needed in order to do so. But the worst part was that, while he was quick to blame me for anything that went wrong, he would swoop in and take credit for anything that went right. He took all the glory but avoided all of the blame, and eventually it came back to bite him when half of his subordinates left within three months, citing him as the reason.
Today’s passage (1 Kings 19:11-18) shows us the prophet Elijah in hiding. In verse 13, God asks him why he’s there. In verse 14, he replies: “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” Let me paraphrase that: “I am awesome. The Israelites are terrible and they want to kill me because I’m so awesome.” Elijah took the opportunity to build himself up as the hero of the story, waiting for God to step in and reinstate him as the rightful hero who would swoop in and take the glory.
Instead, God does something that I’m sure the prideful Elijah hated hearing: he asked Elijah to go and anoint three other people to be the heroes of the story. And then, to make matters worse, God reveals to Elijah that there are actually 7,000 Israelites who are loyal to him and will also play a part in redeeming Israel. Elijah had thought of himself as the sole hero, the lone rebel standing up for God, but God gently reminded him that he was just one of 7,004 loyal people who would play a part in making things right.
Elijah was suffering for being faithful, but he was also prideful in doing so. He was on the verge of becoming like my bad boss I mentioned above: ready to swoop in and take the glory when things went right, but unwilling to help the people who were already working to fix things. I think we all hate it when the people above us do that, but the fact is that it’s a lot less obvious when it’s us who are doing those things. When we’re asked to put in the work so the people we’re mentoring can succeed, it’s a lot harder to say yes, and that’s the trap Elijah was falling into.
The first part of this passage is probably more well-known than the last part, about Elijah looking for God in the powerful wind and the earthquake and the fire and not finding him, but then finally finding him in the quiet whisper. When we’re suffering, we want God to show up in a huge way and vindicate us. We want to be restored as the rightful heroes of the story. But in this passage, there’s a quiet whisper telling Elijah that he’s not the only hero here, and that the best thing he can do as an experienced prophet is to invest in others and share the glory. To his credit, Elijah listened to that whisper and went out and did what God asked of him. I wonder if I, when looking for something monumental, would be willing to listen to such a quiet whisper.
When following God becomes hard, it can be easy to seek vindication, to want to be the heroes of the story and the ones who show everybody else what’s wrong. But sometimes the answer isn’t vindication. Sometimes, even in the moments we feel a need to make things right ourselves, the thing to do is invest in others and set them up for success. This is an act of humility and surrender, but it can end up being more impactful than anything we can do ourselves.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
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